Luo Yunhang arrived in Fujian Province smoothly by plane that night, stayed overnight at a guesthouse next to the airport, and took a bus to Xianyou County the next day.
After arriving at the destination, he spent several days making inquiries at the timber market and finally found out about a timber merchant who had recently disappeared. His family had made their fortune in small-leaf sandalwood.
This family's situation was truly pitiful, and even Luo Yunhang couldn't bear to look at them anymore.
The man's parents had died, and his wife was raising their daughter in their hometown. He had been missing for several months without a trace. His wife searched all over Haikou but couldn't find him. The relatives around her all said that the man must have died somewhere.
In the local families, it is considered extremely shameful for a family to be buried in the ancestral grave if there is no male heir to carry on the family line.
With the man gone, this bloodline was effectively severed, and everyone began to scheme against each other, bullying the mother and daughter. First, they said she was bad at business, then she seized the timber business left by the man, dividing up the timber in the shop, and the timber business left by the man was forced to close down.
The woman couldn't stop them. She thought that if she gave them the things, maybe they would be willing to give her and her child a way out.
Unexpectedly, these so-called relatives and clansmen were ruthless and heartless, not only seizing their business but also taking over their ancestral home.
They said that since her husband had left, she was no longer a member of the clan and had to return the house to them.
That's ridiculous! The woman pleaded desperately, but no one helped her because there were indeed many bad habits in the area that were difficult to change in a short time.
No one was willing to stand up for the mother and daughter.
When Luo Yunhang arrived, the mother and daughter had already fallen on hard times and were sleeping on the streets. Fortunately, her husband had left some savings.
Although he opened the business with ulterior motives, he simply couldn't stand it anymore; these people were going too far.
So Luo Yunhang settled the mother and daughter in, and taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he climbed over the wall into their ancestral home. That same night, someone else also climbed over the wall to look for the valuable things left by the man's ancestors.
Luo Yunhang covered himself with a white cloth, pretending to be a man returning to claim lives. He gave everyone who came in a thorough beating, enough to keep them in bed for a while.
This act of supernatural behavior scared away several groups of people and also made some strange noises inside the house.
Soon, many strange rumors began to circulate in their village.
Some elderly people say that the man has returned to claim their lives because they mistreated his wife and children.
After this commotion, no one dared to go back to the ancestral home. The woman moved back smoothly, and no one dared to say anything more.
To express her gratitude to Luo Yunhang, the woman took out a small piece of ancient agarwood that the man had left behind as a token of her appreciation.
This was the first time Luo Yunhang had ever seen a piece of thousand-year-old agarwood. Even a small piece weighed several kilograms.
It has a spicy and numbing aroma, and upon closer inspection, a fruity aroma is also present, with sweetness and honey fragrance coexisting.
He definitely wanted the material, but the woman was a widow and her child; how could he accept her gift?
So he bought it for 120,000 yuan, the market price.
Seeing that he didn't try to repay her kindness or take advantage of the situation to extort money from her, but instead gave her money at the highest market price and treated her with courtesy in every way, the woman was somewhat moved.
She then offered to sell him five large pieces of small-leaf sandalwood, passed down from her husband's ancestors, at a low price, just to put her mind at ease.
She wanted to sell the valuable things her husband had left behind, get some money, and take her daughter to live somewhere where no one knew them.
Deep down, she probably knows that her man is most likely not coming back.
With the clansmen being so ruthless, keeping them will only benefit others later. It's better to sell them to this capable outsider and settle things once and for all.
This way, they can still leave themselves and their daughter with some money to make a living and raise their daughter properly.
Luo Yunhang didn't expect things to go so smoothly; the woman was willing to sell herself, which was perfect.
The police in Haikou need more time to solve the case before they can pass on the information, so they don't know the man's situation yet. Once the man's death is confirmed, it will be even more difficult for the mother and daughter to dispose of these valuables.
So without delay, Luo Yunhang found someone to dig out the small-leaf sandalwood buried in the vegetable garden overnight. The man's ancestors had treated it before sealing it away, and it was well protected.
When Luo Yunhang actually saw these old pieces of material, he was completely stunned.
It truly deserves to be one of the three most famous sandalwoods.
There are two pieces of material that are 50 centimeters thick, and three pieces that are 30 centimeters thick. They are undoubtedly old materials passed down from our ancestors.
To confirm its authenticity, Luo Yunhang carefully verified it.
After all, this is something worth millions. Identifying sandalwood is simple: lightly rub the surface of the wood with alcohol; if it turns purplish-red, it's sandalwood.
You can also scrape some wood shavings from the wood and soak them in wine. If the shavings show streaks of blood red, then it is sandalwood.
Old sandalwood does not fade when soaked in water, and any applied color will come off easily with a wipe; new sandalwood fades when soaked in water, but any applied color will not come off.
As the saying goes, nine out of ten sandalwood trees are hollow; the largest sandalwood tree currently on the market is only about 20 centimeters in diameter.
Because sandalwood grows extremely slowly, a mature sandalwood tree takes hundreds or even thousands of years to grow, and the yield is extremely low, making it a scarce resource. Hence the saying, "An inch of sandalwood is worth an inch of gold."
Among hardwoods, sandalwood is the hardest and heaviest. Although it is not as gorgeous as rosewood, its quiet and ancient appearance is unmatched by any other wood.
The value of these old pieces of material is simply immeasurable.
Because it's really hard to find such large pieces of old wood on the market anymore, and coincidentally, there are many valuable rosewood furniture pieces in the basement of Luo Yunhang's ancestral home.
When it comes to the restoration, we may need to use a lot of good materials. Ordinary materials are not worthy of such precious materials, so these materials are just right.
The current market price for ordinary small-leaf sandalwood is at most 300 yuan per kilogram.
Luo Yunhang thought for a moment and quoted the woman a price: one thousand yuan per pound.
The woman's face showed visibly shock. She often did business with her husband and knew the prices. She thought that since this person had helped her and her daughter, she should sell the sandalwood to him at a lower price. She would accept a price as low as 300 yuan per kilogram.
Unexpectedly, Luo Yunhang offered such a high price.
They just weighed them; these five pieces of sandalwood weigh about 3,000 jin in total.
At 1,000 yuan per kilogram, 3,000 kilograms would be 3 million yuan!
The woman readily agreed. She was joking; with such a high price, how could she possibly disagree?
The next morning, Luo Yunhang went to the bank to transfer money for the woman. The mother and daughter thanked him profusely, making him feel extremely embarrassed. In truth, his motives were not pure; he had come for Xiao Ye Zitan and had only helped them out of convenience.
After seeing the mother and daughter off, he specially found a local freight company and personally escorted the few pieces of small-leaf sandalwood back to Tianzhou.
For him, three million is not much, but such precious small-leaf sandalwood is something that can only be encountered by chance and cannot be obtained even if one has money.
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